Roy Ayers, the legendary jazz-funk artist, passed away on March 4 in New York after battling a long illness, as shared by his family on Facebook.
Growing up in Los Angeles, Roy’s parents were not just a schoolteacher and parking attendant—they also loved music. His mom taught piano, and his dad played the trombone. As a kid, Roy learned to play piano and vibraphone while singing in the school choir. By the early ’60s, he was already part of L.A.’s bebop scene, released West Coast Vibes in 1963, and played with famous jazz stars like Herbie Mann. He joined Atlantic Records in 1967 and moved to Polydor by 1970, cranking out albums almost every year for decades.
The big moment came when he started Roy Ayers Ubiquity in the ’70s. They mixed smooth vibraphone sounds with cool jazz-funk beats that shaped neo-soul and even West Coast hip-hop through sampling. Hits like “Everybody Loves the Sunshine,” “Searching,” and “Running Away” became classics for lazy Sundays and were sampled by artists like Dr. Dre and Mary J. Blige.
People think it’s amazing how many musicians he worked with!
Besides his solo work, Roy loved collaborating with other artists too—he produced disco tracks for Sylvia Striplin and even made an album with Fela Kuti during their tours together. As time went on, new artists like Guru, The Roots, Erykah Badu got into studios with him; his final album featured Adrian Younge alongside A Tribe Called Quest’s Ali Shaheed Muhammad! Plus you might’ve heard his tunes in movies—he scored Coffy, showed up prominently synced within Quentin Tarantino’s Jackie Brown, or caught performing live during Questlove’s documentary about Harlem Cultural Festival from ’69!
His family mentioned they will soon hold a celebration to honor all those wonderful years shared through music: “a celebration of Roy’s life will be forthcoming.”
